Rural Advisory Committee gives voice in Victoria

Rural communities in BC will now have input to government policy through the new Rural Advisory Council.

The province announced Wednesday 14 individuals from different areas of the province who will make up the committee, including Tom Hoffman from Williams Lake, Bill Holmberg from Houston, David Pernarowski from Terrace and Gerry Thiessen from Vanderhoof to name a few.

“There’s a real need for rural communities to give advice to the government on legislation,” Thiessen said. “I’m pretty excited because it’s something I have sensed ever since getting involved in municipal government, that Victoria struggles on the impact they make. I’ve worked diligently over the past five years wanting to have some kind of rural input into legislation and the decisions that impact rural communities.”

The focus for the council is to give voice to rural communities on rural economic development and a chance to provide advice on community capacity building and rural dividend. Members will be expected to meet quarterly with the first meeting being held March 26-27, 2015 in Victoria.

For more information visit http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/topic.page?id=53BE23E840F84C3D8B46E7E05862D661.